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NASA to announce new commercial space partner

By David Shiga

Rocketplane Kistler lost its dispute with NASA over the agency’s cancellation of its funding agreement with the company. The partnership was meant to help the company develop a vehicle to service the space station (Illustration: Rocketplane Kistler)

NASA is set to announce a new commercial partner that will try to develop a spaceship to service the International Space Station. The new partnership is possible because the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has officially upheld NASA’s decision to sever a previous partnership with aerospace company Rocketplane Kistler.

With the space shuttle set to retire in 2010, NASA is looking for alternative ways to transport astronauts and supplies to the space station. NASA’s own shuttle replacement – the Orion spacecraft and Ares I rocket – is not expected to be ready until at least 2015.

In 2006, NASA signed agreements earmarking &dollar;485 million to be split between two companies trying to develop vehicles to service the orbital outpost. As part of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme, it set aside &dollar;278 million for SpaceX, based in El Segundo, California, and &dollar;207 million for Rocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City, both in the US.

The money was to be gradually doled out between 2006 and 2010 – as long as the two companies kept meeting performance milestones along the way. But after Rocketplane Kistler failed to raise a required &dollar;500 million in private financing, NASA cancelled its agreement with the company in October 2007.

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The space agency wanted to quickly sign an agreement with another company to take Rocketplane Kistler’s place, but the company disputed the cancellation, filing a complaint with the GAO.

No appeal

The company argued that NASA was required by US law to sign traditional procurement contracts with the COTS partners, rather than the “Space Act” agreements it actually signed. Those agreements allow NASA to back out of its partnerships without penalty if certain milestones are not met.

But the GAO rejected Rocketplane Kistler’s argument. It pointed out that the law Rocketplane Kistler referred to only applies when the goods or services involved are intended to directly benefit the government.

The GAO agreed with NASA that the COTS programme is instead meant merely to “encourage, support and stimulate the development of a commercial market for space transportation, from which NASA could potentially acquire orbital transportation services”.

The GAO’s decision clears the way for NASA to select a new COTS partner in addition to SpaceX, whose partnership with NASA continues. Only &dollar;32 million was paid to Rocketplane Kistler, leaving &dollar;175 million for new partnerships.

“We’re on track to award an additional partnership later in the month,” NASA spokesperson Beth Dickey of NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, US, told New Scientist. “The GAO ruling cannot be appealed.” Dickey would not give a date for the announcement, but said it would be sometime after 8 February.